Web Stories

Analysis of Venezuelan election refutes fraud claims

Posted September 2, 2004; 01:19 p.m.

by quinones

An analysis of polling data from the Aug. 15 referendum in Venezuela to recall President Hugo Chavez indicates that certain forms of computer fraud were unlikely to have occurred during the electronic voting process, according to a study by computer science researchers from Johns Hopkins and Princeton universities.

Groups opposed to Chavez charged that statistical anomalies in polling data indicated that election results were fraudulent. However, an independent analysis of the same data by
Edward Felten
, professor of computer science at Princeton, and Aviel D. Rubin, professor of computer science, and Adam Stubblefield, a doctoral student, both at Johns Hopkins, did not detect any statistical irregularities that would indicate fraud.

"The opposition's claims that statistical anomalies in the reported results indicate fraud seem to be incorrect," Felten said. "However, this does not rule out the possibility that other types of fraud, which would not have left statistical traces, may have occurred."